The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1887-12-05
Jars AND TOWELS.
)1Xf6 Sources OF Grave Danger TO
Those who Use Them.


which, though they may seem of prac-
tcal insignifcance, are in reality OF
deep Importance to tho public. Chief
among these, says writer in The amer
lean analyst, may be mentioned the
toilet soap furnished the patrons in
their bedrooms and baths, and the tenn
porary guests in the Mushrooms. As u
general rule it may be said that no
American hotel uses even decent soap.
The writer has had wide experience
amo9gfho great establishments OF New
~ and in only two has he found a
4 soap that was really Of superior
quality. Many proprletors purchase
Cheap CASTLE and poor cottonseed oil
soap by the hundred bars and cut these
into convenient cakes. They cleanse
well and generally are free from coarse
perfumes and poisonous coloring mat
ter. But nearly all brands of this class
are poorly made and strongly alakline.
They not only attack the skin and
eventually produce sores, but they also
irritate the mouths of the pores, and
eat into the glands and the oil they
contain. Their use gives clean skin,
but one that is dry, rough, and inelas-
tic. Frequently, after few days. dry
white patches rise and fall OIL, the lips
and nostrils chap and general feeling
of uneasiness and even positive dis
comfort results. Worse than these
are the cheap and pasty toilet soaps so
much in vogue. They are made from
rancid vegetable oils and half decom-
posed acid animal fats with impure al
aklies, in the shortest time and the
! cheapest manner possible To cover
up their foulness orpoor workmanship,
the manufacturer colors them with
brilliant dyes or very dark dyes, and
with the rankest essential oil the mar
let affords. A cake taken from Sec
ond-rate Broadway house is good
>ease in point. 1t has a neat oval form,
Yong but pleasant oder, fathers
and is of a handsome rich brown
10 any but an expert it would
Il superior article, while to a
proprietor it offers, besides all
P:nese attractive qualities, the far more
fascinating element of extreme cheap
ness. Careful examination and anal
ysis show that the brown color conceals
sovenly workmanship which would
otherwise be exposed, in irregular
masses of varying shade and consis-
tency, and that the strong essential oils
serve to smother rank smell of putre-
faction and nauseating raw materials.
The amount of the olls is so large as
to act as a rubefacient and even an IT.
ritant upon the skin. The writer once
experimentally rubbed it on his face
and allowed thethn saponaceous film
to remain ten minutes before washing
it Off On its disappearance he found
the cuticle covered by numerous red
points intermediate in appearance
between acne and eczema, which lasted
twenty-folir hours before the face re-
sumed its natural appearance. Such
toilet soap applied to women of fine
compilations but of sensitive skins
would ruin their appearan in less than
n fortnight and would in the long run
producea condition OF the cuticle which
Vnlld require weeks of medical treat
- restore TO its pristine state.
Brse would be Its use upon babies
young children. Their skin is finer
nd more delicate than can be easily
described. Irritated by such soaps it
would break out into painful eruptons
and in short tine thereafter into run
ming sores.
The evils described apply chiefly TO
the bedroom and bathrooms; those of
the public wash-room are far worse.
Here larger cake is employed, and
almost invariably one whose workman
ship is so inferior that with the slight
est use it becomes pulpy or sticky. In
toned, and besides this it may act and
frequently does act as u vehicle for
disease virus and disease germs. A
person suffering from some skin COM
plant or from some blood disease,
which manifests itself in cutaneous
disorders. ulcers, or other sores, uses
the cake, and by the mere friction of
rubbing. loosens scales and pieces OF
diseased matter which are retained by
the glutenous surface of the soap.
These may or may not contain the virus
or the germs referred to. If they do
the next person who uses that cake
runs serious risk of absorbing the
contagion and becoming sufferer from
the same d seasc. So bad are matters
this regard that the only safe rule
person solicitous for his health is
liver use the soaps supplied by ho-
tells sAr patrons aud guests. but to al
ways carry his own with him or to try
fresh cake, no matter how great the
temptation may be to use that which is
freely offered him in places of public re-
Ort.
More Objectionable yet are the un-
wieldy roller-towel. the saloon towel,
aud tbo 1ono and hroad towels of the